Press Releases

Texas Slavery Mapping Project Will Address Human Trafficking In Texas

Dec. 4, 2014

AUSTIN, Texas — The scope of human trafficking in modern-day Texas will be charted by researchers working on the Texas Slavery Mapping Project, a new two-year initiative funded by a $500,000 state grant to help prevent exploitation and to care for survivors.

The Criminal Justice Division of the Governor’s Office awarded the grant to the Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (IDVSA) and the Bureau of Business Research at The University of Texas at Austin, working in partnership with Allies Against Slavery to document the extent of human trafficking across the state.

The project’s first year will involve gathering existing data from sources across Texas such as district attorneys and local law enforcement, and from state and national anti-trafficking advocate organizations. During the first year, the team also plans to catalog available services for trafficking survivors in Texas, including legal advice, shelters, counseling and job-skill development. The second year will be spent mapping slavery in several key regions of the state and conducting an economic analysis of the tangible and human costs of the crime.

“The Texas Slavery Mapping Project will be an important contribution by our state to the national dialogue about ending slavery,” said John Nehme, chief executive officer of Allies Against Slavery, whose vision inspired the project. “This study will ultimately help us detect slavery more rapidly, deploy resources to disrupt the crime and support survivors more effectively, and better educate the public.”

According to the U.S. Department of State, human trafficking is a form of modern slavery that occurs when someone is coerced, forced or deceived into prostitution, forced labor or domestic servitude. In 2013, Polaris, a nonprofit dedicated to combating this crime, reported that a total of 431 human trafficking cases and 1 out of every 11 calls to the National Human Trafficking Hotline came from Texas, second only to California. Texas is considered a hub for human trafficking, yet the true scope of the crime is largely unknown.

“The project will fill a critical gap in the research,” said Noël Busch-Armendariz, director of IDVSA at The University of Texas at Austin’s School of Social Work and principal investigator on the project. “By expanding our shared knowledge about modern slavery in Texas and assessing the success of existing programs, the project will give policymakers and practitioners the information needed to improve legislation and on-the-ground initiatives that prevent exploitation and provide care for survivors.”

“Modern slavery is a $150 billion annual criminal industry worldwide, according to the International Labor Organization. The economic effect of trafficking in Texas, with its large and diverse economy, certainly will be significant,” said Bruce Kellison, associate director of the Bureau of Business Research and co-principal investigator. “The project will examine how much slavery costs our state to better understand this crime’s impact on our economy, on its victims and the systems that must respond to it.”

About Allies Against SlaveryAllies Against Slavery develops community networks that build slave-free cities. Founded in 2010, Allies educates and mobilizes community members, supports survivors of trafficking, and strategically coordinates a network of partners to magnify their overall impact. Allies aims to provide network partners and communities with the resources, knowledge and structures to create holistic, measurable solutions to slavery. Visit www.alliesagainstslavery.org for more information.

About the Institute on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault (IDVSA)Located in the School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin, the Institute on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault (IDVSA) is a collaboration of the schools of Social Work, Law, and Nursing, the Bureau for Business Research, and 150 community affiliates. The mission of IDVSA is to advance knowledge about interpersonal violence. IDVSA accomplishes this through research, education, and service in multidisciplinary, strategic partnerships with researchers, educators, practitioners, policy makers, and other community members. It is our vision to enhance the quality and relevance of research findings, their application in service provision, and ultimately, their benefit to survivors of interpersonal violence, and those who assist them. That vision is realized in our focus on human trafficking, domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and resiliency in child abuse professionals. Over the last 14 years Noël Busch-Armendariz as director of IDVSA has managed more than 50 research, education, training and technical assistance, and curriculum-development projects with external funding of approximately $6 million dollars from federal, state, local, and foundations.

About the Bureau of Business Research (BBR) The mission of the Bureau of Business Research is to provide Texas businesspeople and policymakers with applied economic research and data to strengthen the state’s business environment. Since its founding in 1926, the BBR has developed a reputation for nonpartisan analysis of economic trends through publications, independent reports, and sponsored research. The BBR is a research unit of the IC2 Institute at The University of Texas at Austin.